From the moment the study of Roman art (and architecture) entered the university curriculum there have been textbooks to aid students in their discovery and understanding of the material remains of the ancient Roman world. A related and more recent development is the abundance of handbooks or companions: collections of essays by specialists typically arranged by theme rather than by the standard political chronological framework as is often the case with textbooks for classroom use.

One of the more recent handbooks is Wiley Blackwell's hefty and rather pricey A Companion to Roman Art. Organised into seven parts, the thirty chapters cover a wide range of topics; each essay concludes with a brief guide to further reading and relatively comprehensive bibliographies. Following an introductory chapter by the editor on issues of terminology and the purposes of the companion format, Part 1, ‘Methods and Approaches’, includes four essays by established scholars. C. Hallett catches the ball tossed by B. at the end of the introduction to tackle the inherent problems of terminology in the study of all things Roman; what do we mean by the term ‘Roman’ and how have thorny terminological questions shaped what we have considered and selected to discuss as ‘Roman art’? After reviewing the general lack of Roman acknowledgement for ‘homegrown’ products as ‘art’ per se, Hallett accepts the appellation, ‘Roman visual culture’, and the rejection of the binary divisions of private versus public art. Although at times dense and disjointed, Hallett's essay serves as a condensed prolegomena to the field with an emphasis on reception and the meaningful plurality of styles based on Greek models. In the next short but important essay, T. Hölscher addresses the historiography of Roman ‘historical’ relief sculptures, definitions of ‘historical’ or ‘state’ imagery, political ideologies, terminology and architectural narratives. He demonstrates the close connections between the finite, often repetitive moments represented in ‘historical reliefs’ with the ritualised nature of collective memory, individual ambitions, visual models of behaviour and political patronage. An informative summary of uses of allegory and symbol in ‘historical’ imagery, provincial reactions to and expectations of official art, as well as systems of cultural practice add depth to this chapter. K. Fittschen provides a useful introduction to portrait types, the value of coins and other evidence for the identification and dating of imperial portraits and, most interestingly, the systems of copying portraits for dissemination and distribution throughout the Roman world. The essay ends with brief summaries of assimilated portraiture (private citizens’ portraits resembling official images), period faces (Zeitgesicht) and the problems of stylistic dating for portraiture. This first section concludes with an essay on gender studies by the late N. Kampen. After a review of the historiography, Kampen shows how the interdisciplinary nature and critical practice of gender study perspectives have allowed the traditional canon of Roman art to be both questioned and expanded to include provincial funerary art, erotic imagery, non-state reliefs, and mythological figures and episodes in all media. Kampen's final two subsections (‘Gender and Sexuality’ and ‘A Few Remarks on Representation’) will be particularly useful for students interested in feminine and masculine cultural language and modes of power.

Part 2, ‘The Beginnings and End of Roman Art’, comprises three essays, starting with M. Papini's summary of the scholarship and recent assessments of the early art of central Italy with an emphasis on foreign (non-Roman) artists and the chronological developments of terracotta and bronze sculptural production. Papini also includes a concise and informative review of the importation of Greek art and artists to Rome during the second century b.c. The next essay by R. Kousser continues with the complex topic of Greek art (originals and copies) as interpreted through a Roman lens; Kousser examines both manubial and domestic art and architecture of the Republican era as well as the reformulation (‘adaptation’) of Greek art during subsequent imperial phases. Kousser's useful essay includes an examination of Greek-influenced art in the Roman provinces during the second century c.e., arguing that exalted Greek images were most useful for Rome due to their multivalent and symbolic rather than literal nature. Part 2 concludes with an essay by A. Bravi on Roman art in Late Antiquity. After asserting that ‘art actively participated in historical developments’ (p. 130), Bravi examines the traditionalism and conservatism of late Roman patrons and creators while simultaneously addressing trends towards abstraction and the transformative representation of civic identities and power relations in late-antique art. The continuity of pagan mythological images demonstrates these artworks were relevant and flexible modes of communication in late Roman urban environments and religious communities. Having discussed habitus, paideia and rhetoric and their relationships with late Roman visual culture, Bravi concludes with an extensive and most useful guide for further reading.

The production and patronage of Roman art is addressed by four essays in Part 3. M. Allen begins with an assessment of technique and message and notes the culturally assigned associations of technique (‘assertive’ or ‘symbolic’ mode) as well as the ‘relational’ mode of material facture, wherein two distinct methods of manufacture are positioned side by side to create previously unknown sets of associations (i.e. acrolithic statuary). Allen also examines actual and perceived costs of materials, their magical and medicinal properties, and the territorial, metonymic and historical associations connected with imported coloured marbles, exotic granites and terracotta plaques. M. Squire examines the concept of the artist and artistic identity in the Roman world, reiterating the anonymity and low status of contemporary artists (or craftsmen) as portrayed in Roman era literature as well as the primacy of agency often afforded to the patron. Squire concludes with concise but rich discussions of the logistics of apprenticeship systems, workshop organisation, the adoption of ‘illustrious’ Greek names and artists’ signatures, and a substantial guide to further reading and bibliography. Patrons and intended viewers are the foci in the next essay by P. Holliday with an emphasis on now famous triumphal and honorific monuments. In his examination of such notable and well-studied works such as the Marcus Antonius base, the Ara Pacis, the Gemma Augustea and the Flavian Cancelleria Reliefs, Holliday emphasises the diverse statuses and intentions of those who commissioned public works of art as well as the heterogeneous nature of the populations who confronted and reacted to official state imagery. Holliday's study of state patronage is complemented by L. Petersen's essay on the assessment of styles in non-elite Roman art. After yet another but useful summary of the historiography of style in Roman art (here with an emphasis on the binary patrician/plebeian construct of R. Bianchi-Bandinelli), Petersen discusses stylistic eclecticism, the problematic notion of ‘plebeian art’ and the persistence of the so-called Italic style in relief sculpture. Unlike many of the preceding essays in this part, Petersen also addresses questions of style, intended aesthetic effects and potential responses associated with Romano-Campanian painting. Petersen's concise essay is thought-provoking and should compel students to explore the vast and often overlooked body of non-elite Roman art.

Part 4 covers the seemingly unwieldy topic of genres in seven essays, which readers may find the most useful for digesting current scholarship on the basic traditional categories of Roman visual culture. J. Fejfer discusses portraiture and the Roman obsession with identity and memorialisation by focusing on processes of production and commissions, styles and viewing contexts, and the functions of portraits and their associated inscriptions and statue body types. K. Lorenz provides a valuable overview of Roman wall painting with sections on historiography and the four Pompeian fresco styles as first identified by A. Mau. Unfortunately, little space is given to post-Vesuvian Roman wall painting in Italy or the provinces. In contrast, R. Ling discusses Roman mosaics (‘pavements’) and their architectural contexts both in Italy and throughout the Roman world as well as the mosaic decoration of walls and vaulted spaces best illustrated by structures in Campanian towns and villas. M. Koortbojian provides a summary of the development, iconography, funerary contexts and narrative formulae of Roman sarcophagi as well as Roman attitudes towards death and the murky world of the afterlife and a concise review of previous scholarship. Decorative art is the focus of F. Sinn's essay; a substantive discussion of domestic objects and their decoration, including tables, puteals, fountains, candelabra, vessels, oscilla, altars and tripod bases. K. Lapatin treats luxury arts (objects and sculptures crafted from precious metals and stones, gilded glass, jewellery, furniture, gems and cameos) with an examination of the textual and material evidence as well as the artists responsible for these coveted items and the material hierarchies of value. E. Thomas posits whether (or not) architecture can be understood and studied as a category of art. Following an examination of ancient and modern opinions, Thomas explores concepts of space, light, materials, restorations, scale, texture, geometry, theatricality and rhetoric, and axial and aedicular design. Thomas ends with a call for students to consider the ‘art’ of Roman architecture and the Roman appreciation for this genre of ever-changing challenges and creativity.

‘Contexts’ are the subject of Part 5, which is subdivided into three sections: houses and villas, tombs, and provincial art. Section 1, ‘Roman Art and “Private Space”’, begins with S. Ellis’ review of the frescos, mosaics and furnishings in Roman townhouses through two case studies of ‘modest’ homes – the well-known Pompeian house of M. Lucretius Fronto and the late imperial House of the Bound Animals at Thuburbo Maius (Tunisia). Ellis argues that changes over time in the design, functions and decoration of atria and peristylia were emblematic of changes in values attached to social status and personal identities. R. Neudecker follows with a discussion of Roman villas. After a summary of the ancient literary evidence, Neudecker reviews the archaeological evidence for villas in Italy with a focus on intersections between nature and culture as well as distinct sculptural decorative programmes at Baiae, Sperlonga, the Villa of the Papyri and Hadrian's Tivoli villa. The decoration of private spaces during the late imperial period (third to fifth centuries c.e.) is deftly handled by S. Muth. A discussion of the scholarship precedes examinations of the functions of art in domestic spaces of activity, discourse and social hierarchies. Next follows a detailed review of the mosaic decoration at the late fourth-century c.e. villa at Piazza Armerina with an emphasis on the interactions between human actions and decor. A valuable plan of the entire mosaic programme as well as black-and-white and colour virtual reconstructions of specific rooms at Piazza Armerina are included. Muth's contribution concludes with an examination of mythological mosaics and their purposes in late Roman domestic contexts and perspectives for future study.

Section 2 of Part 5, ‘The Decoration of Roman Tombs’, focuses on the art of pagan sepulchral monuments and early Christian catacombs. F. Feraudi-Gruénais offers a fresh perspective on the immovable painted and stuccoed exterior and interior surfaces of tombs and columbaria in Rome with an emphasis on interpreting this varied imagery (mythological, allegorical, realistic and fanciful) beyond the traditional, limiting category of funerary art. N. Zimmermann's complementary chapter on catacombs and early Christian decoration provides a summary of the historiography as well as a valuable discussion of catacomb architecture, the emergence of cemeteries in the second century c.e. and the development of early Christian painting in Rome both prior to and after the accession of Constantine. Section 3, ‘Roman Art and the Empire’, opens with R. Smith's ambitious essay on ‘art’ in the Greek East during the Roman era. Smith questions what can or should be identified as Roman in the vast array of decorative programmes in Greek poleis, and understands the roles/images of the imperial court, the gods and the provincial urban elite as the dynamic, ubiquitous forces that connected Greek culture and Roman dominion. R. Wilson addresses art in the Western Roman provinces with a focus on the sculpture, painting and mosaics and (to a lesser extent) the metal, glass and clay products of North Africa, the Spanish provinces, Gaul, Germany and Britain. Wilson's paragraph on further reading as well as his extended bibliography offers much for students interested in researching art in the Roman West.

The penultimate topic, ‘Themes’ is addressed in Part 6 with three essays that explore the relationships of Roman imagery to nature, spectacle and myth. M. Carroll discusses the designs and art of Roman domestic gardens as well as virtual garden and landscape imagery in the frescoes decorating the walls of Italian homes. Z. Newby examines the art of spectacle in theatre-themed mosaics, on objects depicting gladiators and other athletes, the cultural paideia and civic identities in public spectacle performances and related representations, and images of performers in tomb decoration. F. de Angelis wraps up this subsection with a chapter on myth in Roman art in which he explores viewers’ reactions to and interactions with mythological scenes and statue groups as well as notions of reality versus fantasy and decorum. Part 7, ‘Reception of Roman Art in the Modern World’, includes two fascinating essays: R. Barrow's discussion of the afterlife of Pompeii and the influences of Romano-Campanian frescos on the modern (and notably male) painters Robert Adam, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Federico Fellini and Mark Rothko; S. Altekamp explores the influences of Roman architectural design principles and decorative programmes upon architects from the Middle Ages through Italian fascism up to modernism and ‘New Classicism’. This Companion offers a substantive treatment of previous scholarship as well as of important questions facing future generations. Many of the chapters will serve as excellent springboards for further research and, as such, the collection serves its ultimate purpose.

T.’s undergraduate textbook on Roman art, A History of Roman Art, is divided along more traditional lines; the material is arranged chronologically and according to the standard political divisions of Roman history into twelve, heavily illustrated chapters. Special attention is given to the earlier material such as the buildings at Murlo, the Doric temple at Pompeii and Lucanian tomb painting. Timelines, marginal glosses and sidebars on topics ranging from technique to mythology to literary and historical contexts provide students with concise and convenient summaries of related issues. As is now commonplace, additional content and illustrations of the monuments are available through supplemental online resources designed to complement the text. While most of the major monuments, objects and sites are highlighted and illustrated, a few notable exceptions include the Copenhagen portrait of Pompey, the Theatre of Marcellus and the Aqua Claudia. Despite these few lacunae, T.’s lucid, well-organised and lavishly illustrated text offers professors and students another worthwhile choice for an instructional guide.